Hookah parlour murder: Five more held

Goregaon police have arrested five more accused in connection with the murder of a 26-year-old man, who was stabbed outside a hookah parlour in the wee hours of Sunday. Now, the total arrests in the Panchal murder case have reached 11.

The police said these five accused -- Tejas Dalvi (23), Riyaz Ansari (24), Ismail Shaikh (24), Vivek Shettiyar (22), and Shahnawaz Khan (22) -- were hiding together in Thane from where they were arrested by the local crime branch on Thursday and later handed over to Goregaon police.

“We had credible information that these five accused are hiding together in Kishan Nagar slums of Thane. We then sought help from the Thane police to arrest them,” said an officer from Goregaon police station.

The police said they are the key accused in the murder case.

Panchal and his friends had gone to celebrate the birthday of one of their friends and were dancing inside the parlour in the wee hours of Sunday when a man from another group accidentally hit them.

This led to a scuffle between the man and Panchal’s friends. The bouncers removed both the groups from the parlour.

The verbal fight between the groups continued outside the parlour on SV Road. Their heated arguments snowballed into fisticuffs and Panchal was stabbed by a sharp-edged weapon by one of the them.

The incident took place between 4-4:30 am at the hookah parlour.

Panchal was taken to hospital where he succumbed to the grievous injuries.

The police said more arrests are likely in the case.